1. Field
The invention herein disclosed generally relates to semiconductor processing systems, and specifically relates to thermal adjustment of work pieces in a vacuum semiconductor processing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor processes often require careful control of work piece temperatures. This may include heating, cooling, or maintaining a target temperature as the work piece is moved from process to process within a multi-process, vacuum processing system. Due to the high cost of space within a vacuum environment, the space for handling and storing work pieces such as wafers is generally kept small. However, these space constraints can limit the ability to move multiple workpieces independently within the vacuum, and traffic bottlenecks can occur in buffers between processes. As fabrication processes grow in size and complexity, the difficulties of thermal management and wafer movement become greater.
There remains a need for semiconductor handling equipment that addresses these dual challenges of thermal management and wafer movement within a vacuum environment.